Pensions White Paper - More Changes On The Horizon For Defined Benefit Scheme

As a response to the high profile BHS case, the Government intends to give more powers to the Pensions Regulator which could increase the burden on directors and officers of sponsoring employers.

The Government has concluded that there is no systemic problem in the regulatory and legislative framework that governs defined benefit pension schemes; but there are examples of sponsoring employers misusing the flexibility in scheme funding, so the proposed changes are aimed at supporting the Pensions Regulator's ambition to be clearer, quicker and tougher. The key proposals which will affect directors and officers are:

• Fines and new criminal offence

  The Pensions Regulator currently has the power to issue a "contribution notice" where a sponsoring employer, or a connected person (such as a director), has carried out an act or omission which is materially detrimental to the defined benefit pension scheme. The Regulator is to be given an express power to issue